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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

Sorry to have to spring this on you so soon, as I am sure you may not quite be in the mood yet. But, I figure once the December Bar opens it is open territory for Christmas Carols .

I do not have much at all in my Christmas line up. This one though, I set out to learn a couple of years ago. At the time I acquired only a partial arrangement for it that did not include the bridge, the key change or the ending tag. I liked it enough, but was not motivated enough at the time to finish it, and there it sat for a few years.

Fast forward to being on PW now, with my new found motivation, and I have completed it this year. I improved the arrangement, changed the key and finished it. It is fairly straight up version, but I am pleased that it is at least complete so I can continue to improve on it.

Thanks Ken, no worries admitting it. It used to do the same for me. Not sure if it still will now though. I like Natalie Cole's version. The only one I know though -- know though? --. I will check out Amy Grant now. thanks again

The Holiday season is a great time to take stock of the progress (or lack thereof) that we've made over the years. I usually like to try to record two Christmas/holiday-related numbers around this time of year. Since this is my first year on the ABF, I will bore you with my whole holiday catalog. Fire sale - all songs must go!

2012

This one is hot off the presses. I will do one more before the season is over (hopefully).

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is a "free jazz" number which one would think should not appeal to most people. But this is by far my most downloaded number. I remember thinking that this was an advancement because the only advice that I got from my piano teacher on the arrangement was to consider using some fourths in the melody.

Auld Lang Syne was done as a solo piano arrangement. This is when I realized that I had hopelessly forgotten the little that I had learned about improvising for solo piano. I re-harmonized the beginning and end of this to be as dark as humanly possible, befitting the outlook for 2012.

I was really excited about My Favorite Things. This was way,way beyond what I was normally capable of in 2010. It sounds pretty raw now, and overly long. This is an uptempo jazz waltz. Hopefully we can entice Jazzwee to post his exceptionally beautiful version that is out on Soundcloud.

What Child Is This (aka Greensleeves) is done as a bossa nova.This is old enough that the original backing instrumentation was MIDI, and I had to supply my own acoustic guitar embellishments. I was able to re-mix it to get rid of the MIDI, but I unfortunately had to keep myself on the guitar.

These are nice Ken, I particularly like the 2012 Christmas Time is Here. This shows a pretty clear progression of style and your advancement. Good for you. You're going to be hearing another version of "Christmas Time is Here" in a few weeks. As I mentioned earlier, I do not have much in my Christmas line, but this is one of them. It's all good though, we are likely to see a few of this one ... it is a great tune.

Well done. I still have more listening to do, and really diggin' it.

Hey, you know we are supposed to be posting this in the Holiday thread that has been started, eh ?

Mark and Greener, could you guys re-post your performances in the "Holiday Performances" thread?

This is really good stuff that should be included in it.

Mine isn't Christmas related...so let me know...

Sorry Mark. I saw Christmas-related and had a brain-fart on the "isn't part.

Anyway, I was surprised at how nice and clear your performance was in that bright room. It sounded really good. My acoustic is also on wood floors in a bright setting but the walls are log (log home) which does incredibly funky things to the sound.

Mark and Greener, could you guys re-post your performances in the "Holiday Performances" thread?

This is really good stuff that should be included in it.

Mine isn't Christmas related...so let me know...

Sorry Mark. I saw Christmas-related and had a brain-fart on the "isn't part.

Anyway, I was surprised at how nice and clear your performance was in that bright room. It sounded really good. My acoustic is also on wood floors in a bright setting but the walls are log (log home) which does incredibly funky things to the sound.

Nice job and nice shiny fallboard too!

If you notice the Zoom is back on the lid. It helps reduce some of the brightness. If I use the Flip camera audio, it is harsh.

kenjazz, Christmas Time Is Here is one of my favorite Christmas songs. I really enjoyed your version of it. The "fairy bells" at the beginning and end are a nice touch. God Rest may be a free jazz, but it retains enough recognizable melody to be a joy for those of us who are into less esoteric music. I found myself singing and scatting along through parts of this one. Your Auld Lang Syne is delightfully different. I found myself enjoying a song I normally do not like much. My Favorite Things does drag a bit now and then, but is overall quite a fun listen. What Child is another Christmas favorite, and your bossa version is enjoyable.

I recorded this along with 4 others, including the last recital piece, during the same session in a very short period of time. (perhaps 1 hour)

I came to the realization that I needed to record these 5 pieces to be done with them and get them off my practice schedule (they were consuming too much valuable time for new stuff!) - so I decided I would just play 'em each through a couple of times and select the best take. To heck with mistakes - it's not like these are soundtracks to a movie or anything!

I was very fortunate with this piece that I was able to record this take. I had tried on multiple occasions over the summer to record this, but always melted down spectacularly at some point.

When I finished, I paused for a moment and thought to myself, "Woah, did I really do that?" I had to listen to the recording again later to make sure I didn't selectively forget any major disasters.

(not that it's perfect - at all! But I was just really pleased to finally get this recorded. )

I haven't contributed to one of these for a long time but I got home early, thought - let's turn on the Zoom and see if I can knock "The Christmas Song." And it's not too bad - I mostly play classical these days so improvising around the chords and melody isn't what I'm usually doing. But it still seems to work OK ...

Nice job keeping the solo rhythm on this tough song! That is always that hardest part when you flip into pop/jazz solo mode - all of a sudden you are on your own there. It sounded very nice.Are you going to cross-post this?

This is fabulous piece, Ben. Excellent control, balance, rhythm you have with this. You're doing extremely well and I think I mentioned this in the recital previously as well. Great piece, thanks for sharing.

Good to see you out to the Bar again, Andy and hope more often now. This is really nicely done and really sets the correct mood for me. I love nice changes and this has it. The trouble for me has been I have never found enough interesting stuff in the Christmas line to bother to work on. But, perhaps have not dug deep enough. This one is a good idea for me now. Thanks.

Mark... - I dunno - sounded pretty good to me. When this first started I thought it was the piece by Blood Sweat and Tears that I can never remember the name of (an instrumental) but then it took off in a different direction.

An interesting and introspective piece. I can see why you like it. Your piano has a nice full tone. Are you liking it any better?